Buddhists, Philip Glass and Gandhi

Photo courtesy of Tricycle magazine\
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“I think there is something very much at the heart of Gandhi in those words,” Glass said near the end of the Tricycle interview. “And of course it’s Christian. And that may make it a hard pill for us Buddhists to swallow.”\
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He added, “I think that basically the Buddhist community is a weak community. And it’s weak because it’s guided by self-interests.” I was not sure, by the end of the piece, whether he held out much hope for Buddhism’s ability to change hearts, much less national destinies.\
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Is there something vital missing in Buddhism that it took a Hindu acting along Christian principles to liberate India from the British? (Remember, one does not have to believe in God to be Buddhist). Does its inwardness have anything to do with such a high percentage of American Buddhists remaining childless? Folks such as Philip Glass are asking really interesting questions.\
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— Julia Duin, assistant national editor/religion, The Washington Times